


Les baleines du désert

by Rose Argent (roseargent)



Category: Sora no Woto | Sound of the Sky
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-15 09:14:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7216492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseargent/pseuds/Rose%20Argent
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Change comes with time, whether you're ready or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Les baleines du désert

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Star of Heaven (rubylily)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubylily/gifts).



> The title is from one of Jacques Cousteau's films, and means "the whales of the desert."

The seasons flew by with amazing speed; with every spring came another Water-Throwing Festival, with every summer another Obon, and with every passing year their sleepy little fort got a bit bigger and a bit less sleepy. Seize began to return to the resort town it had been in the past, only after a few years Roman visitors began to arrive, too, crossing No Man's Land for a chance to see the Fire Maidens and the Princess who stopped the war. And just about everyone who came did get a little glimpse or two of the Princess, but mostly they never knew that the dark-haired woman in fatigues was the Princess they'd come to see.

As the town got busier, the fort got busier. The 1121st Platoon got a second tank--though it looked small and clunky next to Takemikazuchi--and five more members to drive it. Pay packets and supplies started to arrive on time, and with so much more traffic in and around the Clocktower Fortress the distillery was very quietly broken down and moved into the town, where locals took over the production of the calvados. 

Change was everywhere in Seize, in the years following the battle that wasn't. It was quiet, peaceful change, but it was change.

One thing didn't change: No Man's Land ate not one centimetre more of the green surrounding Seize, a thing that the Roman visitors marvelled at.

***

On the eve of her sixth Water-Throwing Festival, the last night of her fifth year in Seize, Kanata wanted to think that things hadn't changed that much, that the important things were still the same, but lately she wasn't sure. The Sergeant's insignia on her uniform didn't really mean anything--even with new people around Felicia had stuck to her guns about not using rank in the Clocktower Fortress. She'd gotten a little taller, but never quite filled out like some of her senpais. But her insides hadn't changed, she still loved the trumpet, still learned new things about it every day, from Rio and even from the bugler for the new tank unit that had joined them. Her dream was still the same--to stay with Rio and the rest of the 1121st forever--wasn't it?

But as she played the sun down at the end of the day, she couldn't help but hear the slightly plaintive note in her music. There were lots of things that didn't change--sunrise, sunset, Reveille, Tattoo--but people, including her, just weren't on that list.

***

One of the new girls was chosen for the Fire Maiden this year, since the townspeople had finally warmed up to them enough to consider them "real" fortress maidens. For Kanata and the rest of Felicia's squad it meant a rare festival night off; Felicia, Kureha and Noël were all taking advantage of the chance to enjoy the festival, and even Rio was going to do the same after making a brief (and mostly involuntary) Official Princess Appearance. 

Kanata felt eyes on her back as she slipped away from the lights and the sound and the fun, even though she'd tried to pick a moment when all eyes were on the Fire Maiden, so she wasn't too surprised when Rio fell into step beside her once they were far enough from the crowd not to draw notice. "Is there something you need to talk about?"

"Not yet." In a way, Rio was the last person Kanata could talk to about this. There was too much she still needed to see, to figure out, before she could put any of what she was feeling into words. 

Rio looked at her for a good, long minute, before nodding and turning to head back to the festival. At the last moment, Rio paused, "But you're going to be careful, right? I don't want to have to fish you out of the lake again."

Kanata blinked, too startled to reply for a moment. But of course Rio remembered her first night in Seize, just as clearly as she did. "I'll be careful."

The look Rio gave her was, at best, dubious, but eventually she nodded again. "I guess you haven't needed me to take care of you for a while now, have you?"

Swallowing, Kanata wondered how Rio kept hitting so close to the bone, all accidentally. Had she been thinking the same things all along? Kanata felt tears start to well up and she threw herself at Rio, barely pulling back enough to avoid knocking her over. "I will _always_ need you."

Putting a hand on Kanata's head for a moment, Rio smiled a little ruefully. "Okay, okay. Go do what you need to do, and when you're ready, we'll talk about it."

Sniffling, Kanata nodded and stepped back, "Okay."

***

After retrieving her pack from the trunk of the car, Kanata headed out to the steep cliffs and the lake she'd first seen five years ago to the day. She'd started thinking about coming back a long time ago, really, maybe even the moment Aisha had talked about wanting to see the fossil in the lake. But she'd only really started thinking about how to come back a couple years ago; getting down to the lake was easy, climbing back up to the path without having to call for help was the tougher part. 

She was ready now. After carefully making her way down as much of the path as she could, she reached the point where she could turn back, or jump. Alone in the moonlight, she stripped down to the bathing suit she'd been almost too embarrassed to buy, wrapped and tied a rope around her waist, and with one last deep breath, she dived. 

The wind in her ears was a whistle, a changing pitch that she almost grasped and then it was gone as she hit the water. Under the surface it was all quiet, still and cool and dimly lit by the moon and the stars. The music of the world above was all silence down here: peaceful, but alien. Noël had told her, when she wanted to know more about dolphins, that once there had been mammals that lived in the sea and sang to each other to communicate. In this cool silence that seemed like a dream, another world she couldn't imagine.

She'd wondered, when she was planning this night, if she'd be able to find the skeleton again on her first try. It was a big lake, and there was so little light. She'd picked a spot near where she thought she fell, but it was five years ago and she hadn't been paying much attention at the time. At first it seemed like she'd been right to worry, but then she saw a glitter of gold out of the corner of her eye and when she turned, there it was. 

Even expecting it, it was as shocking as seeing it for the first time. And as wonderful. Counting the seconds until she needed to resurface--a bugler's lungs could hold a lot of air, but she'd need a breath after a few minutes--Kanata swam a little closer. Not close enough to touch, but close enough to make out details. The wings were massive, but so like a bird's. Could it fly, when it lived? 

Kanata was still lost in dreaming about wings when she reached the end of her count and knew it was time to come up for air. 

The climb back up to the path was slow, and difficult, but the rocks were so craggy and uneven that Kanata ended up not even needing the rope, in the end. And even the hard work didn't quite break the spell of what she'd seen. 

She didn't know what was true, whether it was an angel or a demon, whether the Fire Maidens had sheltered it or killed it, but she knew she wanted to know more. She wanted to understand the past, and what made Seize so special, what made it resist the desert that was eating away at Rome. And maybe it had nothing to do with the fossil, or the truth of Seize's history, but she felt like she had to try to find out. 

She wanted to know more about the world under the water, and the skeleton that had waited there for so many years. She wanted to know about the world it lived in, when fish that weren't fish could make music for each other under the sea.

***

When she told Rio, the reaction she got wasn't the one she expected. "So you finally found it. Your own dream." Rio looked a little sad, but she smiled.

Kanata had dreaded telling Rio about her new dream for so, so long. She'd felt like a traitor, every time she thought that maybe her dream wasn't really to stay with Rio forever, after all. But... "You knew?"

Rio hugged her, then, and answered, "I hoped. My dreams were all about Ilya for so long. But finding what I really wanted to do, it gave me strength in a way that chasing after her never could."

"But your dream will take you so far away. And mine..." Kanata swallowed her tears. She was an adult now, a strong woman following her own dream, just like Rio. 

"Yours is here, in Seize. The home I'll always come back to."

And that was just too much for Kanata, strong adult woman or not, and she burst into tears. "You promise?"

Rio's own voice was suspiciously tight as she answered, " _Of course_." She pulled Kanata into a hug that was just a little too fierce, a little too hard. "I will always come back."

Kanata dried her tears, and wrapped her arms around Rio, starting to feel like it would be okay--no matter how far apart they were, they'd always hear the sound of the call to come home.


End file.
